Monthly Archives: October 2012

Well, it looks like my recent Canadian holiday has added about 2kgs to my already full* frame. It’s not altogether surprising though as I quite like to eat (hence the already “full” frame) and Canadians like to give people food.

* I’m being polite and not actually calling myself fat.

I was in Canada for about 10 days. From a diet perspective the first three days in Vancouver were pretty good. The food was good and plentiful, but not overly so and I also got to go out for a run a couple of times.

It was once we got to see my relatives in Alberta that things started to go downhill for the diet. It’s ten years since I last visited them and they were pleased to see me – and to show that pleasure they offered food… and then more food. Don’t get me wrong, the food was great – from ribs and steak and burgers and cabbage rolls to donuts and apple pie and cinnamon buns – it’s just that there was a lot of it. On top of that, 25cms of snow put paid to any running.

Bacon, egg and cheese muffin

This was just a mid-morning snack. I’d popped round to my cousin’s to use her wi-fi and she was cooking these just on the off-chance that her son would come round. I mentioned how good they smelt and one appeared in front of me. I’d only just had breakfast, but… well it would have been rude not to.

Mmmm, steak.

This was lunch just before we left – absolutely gorgeous steak, with jacket potatoes and veg. It was beautiful – but I nearly couldn’t drive to the airport because I was so full.

I know I could have refused all the food, but actually I couldn’t have done. And I didn’t.

I was on a flight over the weekend – flying over Sunday night and landing on Monday – and I was surprised that I was allowed to read my Kindle all the way through both the take-off and landing. Normally I’m asked to turn it off and I turn to paper based reading, but on this flight no-one said anything. So are they allowed now?

That said it was a bit of a weird flight.

Overnight flights can be a little bit strange anyway, and then if you add the fact that it was outside of the high season you can multiply the weirdness.

Just near where we were sitting was:

– An incredibly arrogant woman who actually got up to get something from the overhead lockers as we were about 15 seconds away from take-off – you should have seen the speed and anger of the stewardess to close the overhead locker!

– A loud (possibly South African) family – two parents and a grown-up son – who seemed to shout to each other about the films they were watching and be taking photos of the screen – with a flash while most people were trying to sleep.

– A young woman with a baby who was befriended by another passenger who spent as long looking after the baby as the mother did – admittedly this wasn’t weird so much as sweet, but certainly unusual.

And to multiply the weirdness there was us too.

For those interested I was flying back from Canada – of which MUCH more to follow I’m sure.

You know that thing where you do something and are really surprised by results, so you look again and realise its because you were doing it wrong? Well, that.

I’ve been struggling with the 1000kms part of this year’s challenge. I got behind in April and May, mainly because of work. But it was going to be okay because September would help get me back on track. I mean the Windermere swim would be over 30kms alone (given that I double swim distances). Unfortunately however, after my rest week immediately following the swim I was really ill for another two weeks – so rather than getting me ahead, September out me further behind.

So the other day I went tithe gym and had a really good session and when I came back to track my workout it seemed that I was getting back close to the target – until I looked again and realised that I’d entered the numbers all wrong. Bugger!

I’m not yet ready to admit defeat on the 1000kms target for this year, but I’m not far off.

I’m off to New York soon – I know glamorous isn’t it?. Although it’s not that actually that glamorous as it’s a work trip. Not that I’m complaining, but it does mean that we won’t have that much time for sight-seeing. If we’re lucky we might have about 24 hours – we’ll finish work in the evening and then we fly out the following evening.

So what should we do?

Don’t forget that the 24 hours isn’t really 24 hours of sight-seeing as I’m getting older and I’ll need my beauty sleep. But we do have an evening (for dinner and a few drinks) and then the following day, during which we need to wring New York city dry.

I’ve not written much about swimming for a while, so I thought it was about time. In the run up to the Windermere swim I didn’t do too much pool swimming – it was too warm to train in and I just couldn’t get the distance up like I needed to. However, I’ve been back in the pool a couple of times since and I’m reminded why I don’t like it – mainly all the other swimmers!

I’ve written about etiquette in the pool before, but I think there are a few other annoyances I need to point out – I’m hoping that this will be the third and final post of the etiquette trilogy – however I reserve the right to do a George Lucas and randomly add three more at a later date. Anyway, the current crop of annoying pool users are:

Danglers – you know, the people who before getting into a lane to swim sit on the edge dangling their feet into the water. It’s hard to state just how off-putting this can be if you’re trying to turn in the lane. In fact the danglers probably take up more of the turning space by dangling than if they had jumped in and were standing in the water.

Half-lap turners – this is the group of people that feel the need to turn before the end of the lane. This is usually done as a way to get around other swimmers. However what it does do is usually mean that they just get in the way and break up the rhythm of everyone else. I could understand it if they have been following a dawdler for a while, but it usually done at the first available opportunity and just shows an arrogance and disregard for the other swimmers.

So, if you’re lane swimming please don’t commit any of these “crimes” (or these or these). Thanks.

… lend me your ears. Or to be more exact please lend me your music tastes.

I’ve got a £15 iTunes voucher and I want to use it to buy a couple of “modern classic” albums that I don’t already own. So what I’d like you to do is use the comments below to make some suggestions. The albums (that I don’t already own) with the most suggestions by Friday 12th October I will buy.

Of course I’m aware of the possibility that this can be “gamed” and you can leave me with two atrocities to download, but… well… I foolishly trust you. But I will download (and listen) to whatever you choose for me.